INTRODUCTION: Respiratory muscles are a limiter of exercise capacity in lung transplant patients. It is necessary to know the effectiveness of specific respiratory muscle training techniques carried out in the management of adult lung transplant patients in the postoperative period. METHODOLOGY: A systematic review of clinical trials was carried out, which included adult lung transplant patients undergoing post-transplant respiratory training. A search was carried out in the databases PubMed/Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library between January 2012 and September 2023, using the terms: "breathing exercise", "respiratory muscle training", "inspiratory muscle training", "respiratory exercise", "pulmonary rehabilitation", "lung rehabilitation"; in combination with "lung transplantation", "lung transplant", "posttransplant lung". No language limit. RESULTS: Eleven trials were included with a total of 639 patients analyzed. Most training programs begin upon hospital discharge (more than one month post-transplant), few do so early (intensive care unit). The duration varies from 1 to 12 months post-transplant. The interventions were based on aerobic training and peripheral muscle strength. Some of them included breathing exercises and chest expansions. The most used outcome variable was submaximal exercise capacity measured with the 6-Minute Walk Test. CONCLUSIONS: Training the respiratory muscles of the adult transplant patient favors the improvement of exercise capacity and quality of life. Aerobic training, as well as strength training of the rest of the peripheral muscles, contribute to the improvement of respiratory muscles.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher